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I see great photos of brave bald women with temporary henna tattoos on their bald heads, and I know henna tattoos are often done even when still in chemo. Sooooo, I'm thinking, why wouldn't henna be a safe hair coloring choice for my post-chemo peach fuzz? Way way back when I was in my 20's I used henna on my hair all the time to brighten the red color. I remember the musty smell of that green powder (sold in little metal cans in health food stores) even today, and how shiny and strong and auburn it made my hair look. I know that hairdressers hate henna because it reacts to other hair products like perms, etc., and you can't use conventional hair dyes on henna'd hair. I'm very tempted to get some and try it on my fuzzy chemo sprouts. I was looking at "Light Mountain Natural Color The Gray! Hair Color & Conditioner." I LOVE having a bit of hair again, but I don't want to be grey. Red spikey hair sounds so cute. How bad could it be?? Any opinions?

I completely forgot about Henna! I used it as a young fillie. When my hair came back from my breast cancer treatment ten years ago I used a temporary rinse until it really came in a few inches and then went back to the notorious five week permanent colorings. The wig I picked up has a little red in it and I like it. I have a friend with lymphoma; she told me she knew some women in cancer treatment were getting butterflies tatooed on their bald heads. We decided with our luck it wouldn't come back in the butterfly!

I don't know about the henna colors, but if you try it and it works let me know. Mine is coming in with a lot of grey and 40 is just too young for that! LOL My niece and I were joking around last week about dying my fuzz but we didn't do it. I was afraid that it would leave color on the scalp underneath, which you can still see through my hair. If your scalp is covered in hair now, I don't see why it wouldn't work. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Hey Linda,
As a former hairdresser years ago lots of women used henna. I do believe at the time it tended to stain the scalp a bit but if u have enough hair to color, what does it matter? I think it would look great. And you are right, with other hair dyes and/or perms you really shouldn't color or perm over henna. Doesn't take and just damages the hair more.
Take care, good luck and hope you DO IT.....worse happens: it's gotta grow out!!
Cookie
P.S. I didn't actually use henna in the salons though. It's been more than 20 yrs ago that i did hair. got into the local school district and worked in the central libary for all of the school libraries. I miss doing hair and i actually LIKED THE smells. BUT i needed "benefits" at the time., and now i retired about 6 months ago to spend more time at home , with friends and with my mom.

I don't remember henna ever staining my scalp when I used it when I was younger. But I looked at some YouTube "henna how-tos", and it looks like now they mix the henna with vinegar and let it set up for hours before applying, then leave it on the hair something like 6 hours. I remember that I used to just mix the henna powder with water into a gloppy paste and slather it on and leave it on about 45 minutes, and it never stained my scalp. Of course, back then, I was just trying to brighten my red hair and make it softer and shinier and thicker looking by coating it with henna. (worked great for that). Now I have to cover grey, and that may take much much longer. Maybe I better wait until my scalp doesn't show as much as it still does, another month. I don't want an all-over red scalp tattoo!! I WILL try this, I think, but better wait for thicker scalp coverage to experiment. Henna now comes in other colors than red, so if this works, this might be something we 'peach-fuzzers' can do to lose the grey.

If you do it please share the results with us, mine is looking very grey. Yesterday was day 14 of the 6th cycle and my scalp has that sore itching feeling and I am losing hair... again. I am a little bummed b/c it was getting so thick. I can't say much for the length, but it certainly was getting thick and starting to cover my scalp. Now it is looking and feeling thin again. Oh well, at least I know that it will grow back.

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